A ‘ministry of sex’ could be set up in Russia in the latest move to remedy the country’s drooping birth rate.Putin-loyalist Nina Ostanina, 68, chairwoman of the Russian parliament’s committee on Family Protection, Paternity, Maternity and Childhood, is scrutinising a petition demanding such a move. This comes as Putin’s officials are coming up with myriad ideas to meet his demand to halt the demographic slide made worse by the hundreds of thousands killed in the war in Ukraine he unleashed almost three years ago.One bizarre proposal is to turn off the Internet – and even the lights – between 10pm and 2am to encourage couples to have sex. Another idea is for the state to pay stay-at-home women raising children for doing housework, and to include this in their pension calculations. One more notion is that the state should pay for first dates – up to the value of 5,000 roubles [£40].Yet another proposal is that public cash should fund wedding nights in hotels for couples up to a value of 26,300 roubles [£208] in the hope this stimulates pregnancies. The ministry of sex plan to take charge of initiatives to boost the birthrate was raised in a petition organised by GlavPR agency, according to Moskvich magazine.
